Truckee nurse faces felony accusation over Botox injections

Prosecutors ask anyone who thinks they received treatment without getting a doctor’s consultation to contact investigator Jennifer Alvarado at 916-515-5146 or jennifer.alvarado@dca.ca.gov

TRUCKEE — A nurse faces accusations that she gave Botox and other injections to patients without them first receiving consultation from a doctor, a Nevada County prosecutor said.

Christine Ruffner Geis, 56, is charged with a felony count of practicing medicine without certification, states a complaint filed Tuesday in Nevada County Superior Court.

The charge stems from an undercover investigation that started in December, Deputy District Attorney Anna Tyner said in an email.

Authorities accuse Geis, who works at Pure Life Medical Spa in Truckee, of giving Botox and other dermal injections to people without them getting a doctor’s consultation — a state requirement. The consultation is required because the treatment poses health risks like allergic reactions that could lead to permanent facial deformities, a release states.

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“We hope that victims will come forward once they hear about the undercover investigation which spanned from December of last year through May of this year,” Tyner said.

According to a release, the state Board of Registered Nurses got a complaint in 2018 against Geis. The state Department of Consumer Affairs, Division of Investigation, began an undercover investigation which resulted in the felony charge.

Contacted Tuesday, Geis denied any wrongdoing.

“Until this very minute, I thought this was going to be thrown out,” she said. “I followed protocol.”

Geis said she remembers an investigator coming to her office. The doctor in her office previously had seen the patient, but was called to the emergency room. He then received a video — called “tele-med” by Geis — from the nurse about the patient. Geis said she proved to the investigator the doctor was present.

Geis hasn’t been arrested. Prosecutors said it’s common for no arrest to occur in non-violent cases.

“In this case the suspect was not arrested at the end of the investigation, no criminal history, lives in the community, has a job, all indicators that she can be trusted to show up to her court date,” District Attorney Cliff Newell said in an email.

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